Residents of Mitero village, in the Tigithi area of Laikipia, have urged relevant government agencies to take action against a family that has removed their seven children from school after joining a suspect religious sect.
According to the children’s grandmother, Mary Mukami, five of the children in the family have reached school-going age but have yet to enroll in any institution, while two others had already enrolled but were stopped from attending classes.
“It has been four years since these kids went to school; it is because their parents attend a church that does not believe in schools or hospital,” Mary Mukami told Inooro FM
“After pulling the kids out of school, he also burnt their school uniforms,”
According to the kids’ aunt Monica Wambui, their parents have stated that school is unimportant and that they would not have attended if they had known better.
“They are saying school is not important…. and that they would not have attended school in their day if they had known any better,” Wambui told Inooro radio.
Family members with knowledge of the family’s activities say the children, who are homeschooled by their parents, are taught about the end times from the book of revelation.
“They saw this church on TV which neither believes in education or hospitals and have been following it since,” Mukami said.
Apart from their reservations about education and hospitals, the family is said to have isolated themselves from their neighbors.
“They do not like visitors,’ Mukami said ” there was this time I visited and the kids’ father Michael asked me to leave immediately that they don’t want any guests,”
Neighbors who expressed concern about the children’s welfare said they were powerless to intervene because their immediate relatives had yet to act.
“We want the government to help us in getting the rights of these children so that they can all go to school, Mukami added.
